Ayuda International · since 1967

Improving dentists. Improving the world.

Free dental care for children and families who would otherwise go without, from Southern California to islands with no road access.

Volunteer at a clinic See our latest mission

The Ayuda dental team, volunteer dentists and students in matching blue scrubs, smiling together at a clinic

210,000+children treated free of charge

1967the year Ayuda was founded

1991partner of the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at USC

Our story

Five decades of care

Ayuda began with physicians and educators who wanted to improve life for underserved communities in Latin America. Dr. Melvin Lyman, Wilford LeCheminant, Stewart Durrant and Spencer W. Kimball are considered its founders.

1967
Ayuda is founded. Its first project in the highlands of Guatemala creates the country's first rural junior high school, builds a hospital and dental clinic, and immunizes more than 30,000 children.
1991
Dr. Harris Done, USC School of Dentistry class of 1964, starts a larger outreach program in Southern California with the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at USC. That partnership continues today.
Today
Free clinics across Southern California and around the world, run with Rotary clubs, Rotaract and dental students.

Where we work

Close to home and far from roads

Rotary Club partners

Every clinic, reef and forest has been built with Rotary. See all our Rotary partners

Rotary Club of Newport Beach
Rotary Club of Newport Beach Sunrise
Clubs Rotarios de Rosarito, Mexico
Rotary Club of Playa Coronado, Panama
Rotary Club of Patong Beach, Thailand
Rotary Club of Agra Tajmahal, India

Around the world

International missions

Bocas del Toro, Panama
Phuket, Thailand
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Baja California, Mexico
Mission Natuvu, Fiji
Lebanon, a Rotary peace health mission

Featured mission

Walk through our clinic in Cambodia

See how an Ayuda international clinic runs, station by station, and meet the girl in Siem Reap who would not go to school until our volunteers gave her a new smile.

Visit the Cambodia mission

A Cambodian schoolgirl smiling beside Steve Bender after her treatment

Dr. Kiyomi Yamazaki, Dr. Travis Hunt, Ashley Affholter and Dr. Jennifer Stone in scrubs, smiling among portable dental chairs and equipment in the open air clinic at Tropical Arts, with the bay behind them — Our dental team at the clinic set up at Tropical Arts, Bocas del Toro, Panama, 2025. Left to right: Dr. Kiyomi Yamazaki, Dr. Travis Hunt, Ashley Affholter, RDH, and Dr. Jennifer Stone.

Ayuda clinics today

A full dental clinic, anywhere

In Bocas del Toro, Panama, our partners at Tropical Arts open their waterfront space to Ayuda, and in a few hours it becomes a working dental clinic with portable chairs, lights and sterilization. Volunteer dentists and hygienists from California and around the world treat island families side by side with local Rotarians.

The Panama Project

In the clinic

Moments from our clinics and missions

A volunteer dentist in mask and gloves treating a patient

A free dental clinic set up with rows of chairs in a large hall

Young volunteers with children at an Ayuda event

Ayuda volunteers seated in a row at Machu Picchu, Peru

Latest mission · August 6, 2026

By boat to Bocatorito school

An Ayuda team travelled by boat to Bocatorito school in Dolphin Bay, Bocas del Toro, Panama, a community with no road access. We brought fluoride and oral health supplies for about 65 children, plus Oral Hygiene Initiative sugar boards and soda posters that show how much sugar hides in everyday drinks.

The visit was part of The Panama Project, with Dolphin Bay Hideaway, the Rotary Global Service Club and our Volunteer Tourism travellers. Read about The Panama Project.

Treatment helps the child in the chair today. The poster on the classroom wall keeps working long after the boat has gone.

Download the posters free, in English and Spanish

Explore our family of projects

100 Projects in 100 CountriesOur next goal: sharing what we have learned with Rotary clubs around the world. The Panama ProjectClinics, reefs, forests and Rotary family in Bocas del Toro. The Cleft ProjectChristopher's story and a model for Rotary clubs everywhere. CambodiaWalk through our clinic in Siem Reap. Diving DoctorsClinic volunteers who dive to protect the reefs. Rotary Club partnersEvery club that has served alongside us. Stories and tributesDr. Ibsen, Dr. Done, Doug Marcy, Jerry Cates, Kurt Betzel, Jana Koebel and Emily Talentino. Building Bridges Through RotaryOur special relationship with the Rotary clubs of Mexico. LogosThe Ayuda family of logos by Lara Phillips. Poster libraryFree oral health posters in four languages. Join our mailing listNews on any of our projects. Ayuda VIPsDryden Granger, Rita Garabet Bashoura, Sophia D'Angelo and Tracy Stayton. HonorsThe Rosarito parade and Rotary Club of Bangkok DACH. Steve's VisionReading glasses and the Doc in a Box Vision Box. Projects aheadThe Tonga Project and The Galapagos Project. Ayuda and EarthXForests for Trammell S. Crow and the people EarthX brings together. The Macaw ProjectOur goals, our trees and Growing Green Leaders.

From our Facebook page

Clinic days, reef dives, new volunteers and the families we serve. We post here first, so this feed is always the newest word from Ayuda International and our family of projects.

Leadership

Board of directors

Steve BenderChief Executive Officer. Founder and CEO, Help in a Box

Dr. Harris DoneCo-founder and Director. USC faculty

Travis HuntVice President. US Army dentist

Dr. Gerald McClellanDirector. USC faculty

Dr. Byron DoneTreasurer and Secretary. Founding director

Dr. Jennifer StoneDirector. Founder of the Oral Hygiene Initiative

Leadership

Advisory board

Dr. Kiyomi YamazakiDDS, PhD, USC. A great participant and diver

Dr. Levi PalmerPediatric dentist

Dr. Haleh ShaheedyPediatric dentist

Ashley Affholter, RDHFounder, Smile and Score International. USC Dental Hygiene, Oral Hygiene Initiative co-leader

Kaity ZechFormer Rotaract President and co-author of the operations manual

Dr. Rita Garabet BashouraDDS, USC. Miss California International 2019

Natalia NaranjoChief of Staff

Sophia D'AngeloRotarian since age 11. Co-chair, The Galapagos Project and Rotary Reefs

Working together

Our partners

We serve alongside the Rotary Clubs of Anaheim, Newport Beach, Placentia and Mission Viejo, the Rotary Club of Coronado in Panama, the Rotaract Club of Newport Beach, the Help in a Box Dental Program and the Oral Hygiene Initiative. We are also proud to work with wonderful organizations like Ara Manzanillo in Costa Rica, which has returned about 120 Great Green Macaws to the wild and is helping us bring the macaw home to Bocas del Toro. See all our Rotary Club partners.

Ara Manzanillo, Costa Rica Oral Hygiene Initiative Rotary Reefs Volunteer Tourism Rotary Global Service Club The Tree Projects The Mangrove Project Turtle Project Tijuana River Project The Phoenix Project The Mexico Project Building Bridges Through Rotary Growing Green Leaders

Join us at a clinic

Dentists, hygienists, dental students and helpers of every kind are welcome. Tell us where you'd like to serve and we'll send you the clinic calendar.

Email our contact form

Email us to volunteer